Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Disney Kills Star Wars Expanded Universe...?

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

Die hard fans expected this, but to actually (sort of ) see it in print is another thing all together. The children of Han Solo and Princess Leia..Shadows of the Empire..the many adventures of Dengar..Boba Fett paling around with the Sarlac Pitt...gone in the blink of an eye with one Tweet, possibly ending the existence of all Star Wars Expanded Universe stories.

A website with the amazing name TheHothSpot caught this story as the question was asked and answered via Twitter. Is the goal to have one cohesive universe (under Disney's direction)? Leland Chee, Continuity Database Administrator (aka keeper of the stories and where they fit in) for Lucasfilm Story Group answered "That's definitely a primary goal".

Fans went on to ask when they might know what is included in that cannon. Is it just the original trilogy, the prequels and the Clone Wars animated series? Is the Clone Wars series even considered part of the movie universe or are we meant to just accept it as kiddie-fare, having no impact on the "real" film history? What of the video game tales? The stacks of EU novels?? GOOD LORD...WHAT OF THE EROTIC WOOKIE FANFIC??!! Leland shed some light here...

"Star Wars Canon is now determined by the Lucasfilm Story Group. Story Group has a hand in all facets of Star Wars storytelling, including movies, TV, games, and publishing. More so than ever, the canon field will serve us internally simply for classification rather than setting hierarchy."

...or rather he danced around the light and left it as shady as he possibly could without incurring the wrath of a rabid Jaina Solo fan base. It seems like an obvious conclusion. Disney wants to set the tone for every Star Wars story moving forward and have them intertwined with cartoons, films, books, and video games, so the first thing to do is wipe the slate clean of anything mega fans won't revolt over (ie; books, video games and cartoons.) With a new film slated for 2015 and Celebration happening the same year, we are sure to see a lot of teasing over the next 12 months.